American Idol Scotty McCreery Strikes Gold Again

"The Trouble With Girls" is his second consecutive gold single, following his debut single, "I Love You This Big." His Mercury Nashville/19 Recordings/ Interscope debut album, Clear As Day, was certified platinum for sales of more than 1 million units in just three months. Clear As Day debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts, making him the youngest man in history to open at the top of the all-genre chart with a debut release. It also garnered the highest sales of any country solo album released last year and held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart for six weeks.

"Having the first single go gold was crazy, but having the second single go gold and to see the response it is getting in our shows is incredible," he says. "I wish I could come up with better words than 'wild' and 'incredible,' because this is really special.

"It's a huge honor. I'm glad the single is doing well and I'm looking forward to keep singing it on the road."

Scotty is delighted with the reception the Top 20 (and climbing) hit is receiving, along with his first hit and other songs from his debut album, during his live shows as he performs across the nation as part of Brad Paisley's "Virtual Reality Tour 2012" presented by Chevrolet. "As the weeks go by, we are seeing more and more fans singing it back to us. It's a great feeling when you see that and see the fans appreciating your work," he says. "We're having a good time out there.

"The tour is going great," he says. "Brad and The Band Perry are great people. I couldn't think of a better tour to be on. I'm learning a lot every single night. We're having a great time!"

Since Paisley is known for his habit of playing pranks on his tour mates, Scotty had been thinking of a way of having a little fun with Paisley in return. During Paisley's shows, he has shown doctored photos featuring Scotty's head on the body of a muscular man in a bathing suit, and he recently put a photo of Ernest T. Bass from The Andy Griffith Show on Scotty's dressing room door.

During Paisley's performance of "Celebrity," the screens flash fake tabloid headlines including "Is Scotty McCreery Brad Paisley's Love Child?" So perhaps it's fitting that Scotty's joke involved dressing up like Paisley and surprising the star onstage.

"Apparently Brad leaves his hat backstage at every show, but I didn't find out until last week," Scotty says. "I was going to take the hat out onstage that day and poke fun, but we decided it would be too early in the tour because it would leave too much time for him to prank me back. So we decided to wait a little while and perfect the prank � goatee, a tight Brad Paisley shirt and a guitar.